Air India will launch its Delhi-Tel Aviv route flying over Saudi airspace on March 22, the Times of India reported Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation over whether Saudi Arabia would allow flights to Israel to pass over its territory.

The Air India flight will be the first commercial flight to overfly Saudi airspace on its way to and from Israel and will cut flight time by 2-3 hours compared with the route taken by Israel’s national carrier El Al for its Tel Aviv-Mumbai flight.

Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel and despite reports of covert ties, the airlines of both countries do not fly in each other’s airspace.

The Times of India quoted an Air India official as saying the flight would reach Tel Aviv in just over seven hours. “The flight will leave at 4.50 pm and reach Israel at 8.25 pm [local times]. It will leave Tel Aviv for Delhi two hours later,” the official said.

The flight will leave Delhi three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and will be operated on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

El Al’s flight has to avoid several countries in the direct flight path as they do not recognize Israel, resulting in a longer route, more fuel burn and higher prices. Last week, the company El Al appealed to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to intervene to gain Israeli airlines access to Saudi airspace.

The TOI report noted that when Indian prime minister Narendra Modi from Delhi to Tel Aviv last July, his Air India One flight also took the longer route to Israel.

However last May, United States President Donald Trump’s Air Force One became the first plane to fly direct from Riyadh to Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tweeted following that flight: “Mr. President (Trump), you just flew from Riyadh to Tel Aviv. I hope one day an Israeli prime minister will be able to fly from Tel Aviv to Riyadh.”

Come March 22, if the prime minister chooses to fly Air India, he will be able to do just that.

Subscribe to our mailing list

First Name

Last Name

Country

Birthdate mm/dd/yyyy

/
/
( mm / dd / yyyy )

Breaking Israel News

AM News Email

PM News Email

The Israel Bible Reading Plan

Weekly Torah Portion

Israel365 Store Email

Daily Store Email

No Promotions

No promotional emails

Israel365 Daily Inspiration

Daily Email Inspiration

Email Format

html

text

Marketing Permissions

Please check the EMAIL option below to enable receiving the updates you have selected above.

EMAIL

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at [email protected] For more information about our privacy practices please see our privacy policy: www.israel365.com/privacy-policy/

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.